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The Upside-Down Heist: How Every Economic 'Fix' Made Everything Worse

A satirical deep dive into how every economic 'solution' has made things worse — and why Bitcoin might be the only sane exit.

The Upside-Down Heist: How Every Economic "Fix" Made Everything Worse

A satirical deep dive into how every economic "solution" has made things worse — and why Bitcoin might be the only sane exit.

Welcome to the Era of Slop

We're living in the golden age of economic malpractice — what I'll refer to as a kleptocracy. It's the bipartisan art of patching a collapsing monetary system with duct tape, wishful thinking, and a generous dose of gaslighting and moving goal posts.

For over 50 years, since Nixon decided gold was "too limiting" in 1971, America's economic policy has resembled a Rube Goldberg machine designed by drunk economists and operated by politicians who genuinely believe money grows on trees. Oh no! Is your steak too juicy?? Is your honey too sweet?? The abandonment of gold was reasoned away by the very same principals that make it such good money in the first place, but because the government was required to be disciplined on the gold standard, of course it had to go!

The numbers don't lie, even when the politicians do. America's national debt has exploded from $371 billion in 1970¹ to over $35 trillion today²³. That's a nearly 9,500% increase. Meanwhile, the M2 money supply has grown from roughly $700 billion to over $21.9 trillion — a 3,000% increase that might make the citizens Weimar Germany a little more appreciative of their oh-so-sound currency.

This isn't economics anymore. It's slop — an endless cycle where each "fix" creates bigger problems, requiring bigger fixes, in an infinite positive feedback loop of monetary madness.

The Early Slop: When Central Bankers Played God

Before diving into the presidential parade of fiscal disasters, let's examine a little-known story that perfectly captures the arrogance of central banking: the Benjamin Strong affair.

Following World War I, Britain faced a classic post-war economic hangover. The pound sterling was looking rough compared to the dollar. Any rational person might think Britain should strengthen the pound through increased economic output good policy. Oh how silly of you to think that fiscal discipline and central bankers could ever exist in the same room!

Enter Benjamin Strong, head of the New York Federal Reserve, and Montagu Norman, governor of the Bank of England. These monetary masterminds had a brilliant idea: instead of helping Britain strengthen the pound to fix the discrepancy, why not just weaken the dollar? After all, it would be far quicker, and much easier.

Strong and Norman's solution was elegantly stupid: flood the American market with cheap credit to artificially depress the dollar's value. This would make British goods more competitive without requiring Britain to actually fix its underlying economic problems.

As historian Barry Eichengreen noted, "Strong took great pains to control the rates of interest to avoid deflation on the one hand, and to sterilize gold coming into the U.S. to keep off inflation on the other"⁴. The close friendship between Strong and Norman was well-documented, with Norman writing in 1921 that Strong was "not your own property" as a central banker but rather "an international asset"⁵.

The result? The easy credit policies of the 1920s helped inflate the stock market bubble that would eventually burst in 1929, triggering the Great Depression. This episode perfectly foreshadowed everything that would follow: central bankers convinced they could manipulate complex economic systems with simple monetary tricks, creating bigger disasters while solving smaller problems. And the worst part is what they tell the public; "Oh ignorant citizen, depressions and recessions are simply natural disasters that happen in any economy, don't look too far into it, and in the meantime, give us more power so we can fix this!" How convenient that the solution to the problem is to give up more power to those at the top.

The Presidential Slop Parade

Nixon (1969-1974): The Original Sin

Richard Nixon didn't just break bad — he broke money itself. On August 15, 1971, Nixon announced his "New Economic Policy," promising to "defend the dollar against the speculators"⁶. What he actually did was permanently sever the dollar from gold, turning it into a pure fiat currency backed by nothing but government promises (which are never broken) and military might.

As Nixon declared in his television address: "I have directed Secretary Connally to suspend temporarily the convertibility of the dollar into gold or other reserve assets"⁷. This supposed "temporary" measure has now lasted 54 years. Nothing is more permanent than a temporary government program.

The justification was classic political theatrics: the Vietnam War and domestic spending had drained U.S. gold reserves as foreign countries demanded gold for their dollars. Rather than exercise fiscal discipline, Nixon chose the nuclear option: making the dollar inconvertible and forcing the world onto a pure fiat standard.

Ford (1974-1977): Whipping Inflation with Fashion Accessories

Gerald Ford inherited Nixon's mess and responded with perhaps the most ridiculous economic campaign in history: Whip Inflation Now (WIN). Ford literally asked Americans to wear buttons and plant victory gardens to combat 12% inflation⁸.

In his October 8, 1974 speech to Congress, Ford declared: "I say to you with all sincerity that our inflation, our public enemy number one, will, unless whipped, destroy our country, our homes, our liberties, our property, and finally our national pride, as surely as any well-armed wartime enemy"⁹¹⁰.

The President thought he could solve monetary inflation — caused by printing too much money — by asking people to grow tomatoes and wear fashion accessories. The WIN campaign was rightfully called "one of the biggest government public relations blunders ever"⁸. Ford's own economic advisor Alan Greenspan called it "unbelievably stupid"¹¹.

Ford's flip-flopping was equally spectacular. In October 1974, he proposed tax increases to fight inflation. By December, he was advocating tax cuts to combat recession. The man changed economic philosophy with remarkable frequency.

Carter (1977-1981): The Stagflation Spectacular

Jimmy Carter presided over the "malaise" era, watching inflation spiral from 5.8% in 1976 to 13.5% in 1980¹². The economy achieved what economists thought was impossible: stagnant growth with rampant inflation, proving that Keynesian economics had met its match.

During Carter's presidency, "the Federal Reserve Board had adopted a 'loose money policy' which contributed to higher inflation, rising from 5.8% in 1976 to 7.7% in 1978. When crude oil prices were suddenly doubled by OPEC, the world's leading oil exporting cartel, this forced inflation to double-digit levels"¹².

Carter's masterstroke was appointing Paul Volcker as Federal Reserve chairman in 1979. Volcker looked at 13% inflation and decided to jack interest rates to over 20%¹³. Mortgage rates hit the high teens, unemployment topped 10%, and the economy entered back-to-back recessions. Nothing like killing a parasite by killing the host.

Reagan (1981-1989): Tripling Down on Debt

Ronald Reagan promised to shrink government but instead created the modern debt monster. During Reagan's presidency, "the federal debt held by the public nearly tripled in nominal terms, from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion. This led to the U.S. moving from the world's largest international creditor to the world's largest debtor nation"¹⁴.

Reagan's failure wasn't his tax cuts — federal revenues actually rose 65% from 1981 to 1989¹⁵¹⁶. His failure was spending, which increased 69% during the same period¹⁶. The Great Communicator communicated everything except fiscal restraint.

The Reagan era also gifted us the Savings & Loan crisis, a bailout that ultimately cost taxpayers an estimated $160 billion¹⁷¹⁸. "Between 1986 and 1995, the government spent an estimated $160 billion (in 1990 dollars) cleaning up the savings and loan mess"¹⁹. Nearly a third of all S&Ls failed between 1986 and 1995²⁰, proving that deregulation without responsibility creates moral hazard on steroids.

Bush Sr. through Biden: The Debt Death Spiral

Every president since has added to the debt pile:

Bush Sr. inherited a $2.9 trillion debt and left it at $4.4 trillion. Clinton presided over a brief "surplus" while repealing Glass-Steagall, the Depression-era banking regulation that separated commercial and investment banking. Bush Jr. added two wars and a housing bubble, doubling the debt to over $10 trillion. Obama responded to the 2008 crisis with QE1, QE2, QE3, and bailouts galore. Trump continued the money printing party with COVID stimulus. Biden delivered "transitory" inflation that proved anything but temporary. And to top it off we are raising the debt ceiling even more under Trumps second term.

The pattern is clear: each administration inherits a mess, makes it bigger, and passes it along. This is a problem that affects all Americans, but you can also choose to opt out of this never-ending death spiral.

The Wizardry of Quantitative Easing

When regular money printing wasn't enough, central bankers invented Quantitative Easing — sounds complex, right? Well, let me put it in simpler language, creating trillions of dollars from thin air to buy government bonds and mortgage securities.

The timeline of QE reveals institutional addiction:

QE1 (November 25, 2008 - March 31, 2010): "The Federal Reserve initiated QE1 in response to the financial crisis, purchasing mortgage-backed securities and Treasuries"²¹²²

QE2 (November 3, 2010 - June 29, 2011): "$600 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds to further stimulate the economy"²¹²²

QE3 (September 13, 2012 - October 29, 2014): "Open-ended bond-buying program with monthly purchases of $85 billion in Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities"²¹²²

QE4 (March 15, 2020 - March 10, 2022): "The Federal Reserve engaged in QE4 in response to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, purchasing Treasuries and MBS in an effort to provide liquidity"²¹²²

The Fed's balance sheet tells the story of monetary excess. "The Fed's balance sheet more than doubled from about $4 trillion prior to the pandemic to nearly $9 trillion at the start of 2022"²³. Prior to 2008, it stood at under $1 trillion²⁴. The Fed had "increased more than nine-fold since 2008 from just under $1 trillion to almost $9 trillion"²⁴.

Inflation: The Silent Slop Tax

Inflation is the most regressive tax ever devised, hitting the poor hardest while enriching asset holders. Yet politicians continue treating it like a natural disaster rather than a direct result of their monetary policies.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) has become a masterpiece of statistical manipulation. Critics argue that methodological changes since the 1980s have systematically understated price increases.

Consider food inflation from 2020-2025: "prices for food are 26.18% higher in 2025 versus 2020 (a $5.24 difference in value). Between 2020 and 2025: Food experienced an average inflation rate of 4.76% per year"²⁵. Yet officials dismissed this as "transitory" while wages stagnated.

The Federal Reserve's use of the term "transitory" became a running joke. "From April 2021 through November 2021, five consecutive Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) statements described inflation developments as 'largely reflecting transitory factors'"²⁶. Fed Chair Jerome Powell eventually admitted in November 2021: "I think it's probably a good time to retire" the term transitory²⁶²⁷.

The blame game is predictable: supply chains, Putin, corporate greed, expensive eggs — anything except the money printer going brrrr. When you create trillions of new dollars, prices rise. This isn't rocket science; it's basic supply and demand. Here's a simple analogy; the same way gas will expand to fill a volume while becoming less dense, value will expand to fill the money supply but become less dense.

GDP: Theater for the Gullible

Gross Domestic Product has become the ultimate vanity metric — counting destruction as growth and confusing activity with productivity. The GDP formula reveals the absurdity: GDP = Consumption + Investment + Government Spending + (Exports - Imports).

Notice that government spending gets added directly to GDP. This means war, bailouts, and boondoggles all count as "economic growth." The Korean War boosted GDP through military spending financed by taxation. Iraq and Afghanistan spending similarly inflated GDP numbers while depleting productive capacity.

If destruction truly boosted prosperity, we could bomb ourselves into wealth. Instead, GDP creates perverse incentives where politicians prefer expensive disasters to efficient solutions.

The Fiat Feedback Loop

We've created a system where everything depends on continuous monetary expansion. Markets, banks, pensions, zombified corporations — all require endless liquidity injections to survive.

Zombie companies — firms that can't cover debt payments from operating profits — proliferate in low-interest environments. These walking dead consume capital that could fuel productive enterprises, creating an economy of the living dead sustained by central bank life support.

The Federal Reserve balance sheet reveals the trap: any attempt to shrink it triggers market convulsions, forcing renewed expansion. Quantitative tightening becomes quantitative loosening as soon as anything important breaks. We're trapped in a feedback loop where the cure has become the disease.

Central banks can't stop printing without triggering the collapse they're trying to prevent. But continuing to print guarantees the eventual collapse will be worse. It's a monetary Catch-22 with no politically acceptable exit.

Bitcoin: The Opt-Out Button

Bitcoin represents the first viable exit from this monetary madness. Unlike fiat currencies, Bitcoin operates on absolute scarcity — there will only ever be 21 million bitcoin, period.

"Bitcoin has a fixed supply limit of 21 million coins, a core element of its monetary policy designed to ensure scarcity and prevent inflation"²⁸. This maximum supply is hard-coded into Bitcoin's protocol and "enforced programmatically"²⁹.

Bitcoin's monetary policy is simple and unchangeable:

  • Fixed supply of 21 million coins
  • New bitcoin released every 10 minutes through mining
  • Block rewards halve every four years until 2140²⁹³⁰
  • No central authority can alter these rules

This creates the hardest money in human history. While central banks print trillions, Bitcoin's inflation rate approaches zero and will eventually become deflationary as coins are lost.

Real-world adoption proves Bitcoin's utility. In Argentina, Nigeria, and Turkey — countries suffering currency debasement — Bitcoin usage explodes as citizens flee depreciating fiat. "Crypto transactions in the African nation have risen 9% year-on-year to reach 56.7 billion as of June 2023"³¹³². In Turkey, "nearly 10% of the Turkish populace is turning to Bitcoin to protect their funds from the ravaging effects of inflation"³¹³².

"Nigeria is the second most active country in crypto trading" despite government restrictions³². Argentina faces "triple-digit inflation, with the Argentine peso ranking fourth in the list of currencies with the highest annual inflation rates"³¹³².

Bitcoin offers what fiat cannot: opt-out. You can hold it without permission, transfer it without intermediaries, and save without debasement. It's not controlled by politicians, manipulated by central banks, or subject to the whims of monetary policy committees.

You Are the Exit Liquidity — Or You Can Be the Exit

This system will not fix itself because it was never designed to be fixed. It was designed to extract value from savers and transfer it to debtors — primarily governments and their favored constituencies.

Every quantitative easing program makes the problem worse while enriching asset holders at the expense of wage earners. Every bailout creates moral hazard that necessitates bigger bailouts. Every "solution" demands more extreme measures until the system consumes itself.

You cannot vote your way out of this. You cannot reform your way out. You cannot regulate your way out. The incentives are too powerful, the interests too entrenched, the mathematics too inexorable. To quote the great Solzhenitsyn, "Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty." To resist such power, one would have to be Holy.

History provides the roadmap: fiat currencies always collapse. The Weimar Republic, Zimbabwe, Venezuela — all followed the same pattern of fiscal profligacy followed by monetary collapse. The only question is timing, not outcome.

Voltaire understood monetary reality three centuries ago: "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value — zero"³³³⁴³⁵. Modern technology hasn't changed this fundamental truth; it has only accelerated the timeline.

You have two choices: be the exit liquidity for a collapsing system, or be the exit. Bitcoin provides the lifeboat. The ship is sinking whether you acknowledge it or not.

The Benjamin Strong and Montagu Norman episode teaches us that central bankers have been playing God with monetary policy for over a century, always with the same result: short-term political expediency at the cost of long-term economic stability.

Choose wisely. History is watching.

The slop machine keeps churning, but you don't have to feed it.

References

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